RRC SAYS IMPEACHMENT COVERAGE INCREASED LISTENING BY 18% • EARBUD LISTENERS ARE STILL NOT COUNTED • THE MOST MISLEADING CHART OF THE WEEK

Image courtesy of the Associated Press

A new report by the Radio Research Consortium (RRC) demonstrates the power of urgent topics and live broadcasts to increase listening. 

RRC says listening was up 18% higher for NPR News/Talk stations on the four days when impeachment inquiry hearings were held, compared to listening during the same time period when no hearings took place.

You can download RRC’s report here.

RRC looked at PPM ratings data for the first two weeks of Nielsen’s December survey period. During those weeks, the House Intelligence Committee held impeachment hearings on November 13, 15, 19 and 20.

The chart on the right shows the variation in AQH listeners during the ten days that were examined. According to a press release from RRC, listening spiked on days when Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman and Russia expert Fiona Hill were testifying. Listening on those days is shown in darker type on RRC’s chart.

Some NPR stations aired the hearings live as they happened but many did not. RRC did not specify how many of the stations broadcast the hearings live.

To determine the impact of the hearings on listening RRC broke out daily data for 50 full-time NPR News/Talk stations. RRC looked at the number of estimated daily listeners and the number of average quarter-hour (AQH) listeners. This analysis was notable because RRC used AQH data that usually is not made available to the public.

We believe such reports from RRC are very valuable because most of the people working in public media do not have access to Nielsen information beyond the topline numbers reported by Spark News.

RRC’s impeachment listening report is the second recent analysis of the impact of live coverage on daily listening. 

Earlier in 2019, RRC released a similar report (shown on the right) showing listening to the 50 stations during the July 29 testimony by Special Consul Robert Muller [link].

That report said that AQH listening was up 15% on the day of the testimony compared to other four weekdays during the same survey week. The number of NPR stations that carried Muller’s testimony live was not provided.

RRC said in a press release:

“Stations in PPM markets give a pretty clear macro view of listener behavior across standard surveys and dayparts. However, for a more detailed view of listener behavior around special programming, more digging needs to be done. It’s natural to assume your ratings are up or down because events (good and bad) occurred within a twenty-eight day survey.”

NIELSEN STILL HASN’T FIGURED OUT A WAY TO MEASURE LISTENING TO AUDIO VIA HEADPHONES

Nielsen recommends that PPM survey

participants use the system pictured above

to capture their listening via headphones

According to a commentary posted by All Access Media [link], researchers Carolyn Gilbert and Leigh Jacobs from Nuvoodoo Media say Nielsen Audio still can’t track listening to live radio on headphones in PPM markets.

In the commentary, the researchers said “There's the near-impossibility of getting PPM credit for listening done via wired headphones and the true impossibility of getting PPM credit for listening done via Bluetooth or other wireless headphones.”

The lack of measurement is an important issue. The commentary cited a recent survey in the UK that said 12% of listening to live radio happens via headphones/earbuds.

Spark News first reported in October 2019 [link] that Nielsen couldn’t measure headphone listening because the embedded “watermarks” aren’t heard by Personal People Meters.

Gilbert and Jacobs said in their commentary that until or unless Nielsen solves the problem, digital music providers such as Spotify and Pandora continue to have big measurement advantages over live radio.

THE MOST MISLEADING CHART OF THE WEEK: THE REALITY OF HD RADIO

Experi, the current owners of HD Radio, is currently using the chart on the left to hype digital audio broadcasting.

As you can see in the chart on the left, Experi says the total number of digital channels available has increased 88% since 2008; the number of “stations converted” to HD is up 116%; and, the number of HD receivers sold in vehicles is up an amazing 5,510% during the same period.

However, Experi’s chart fails to include the most important metric: The number of people who actually listen to HD channels.

The chart on the right shows the actual estimated weekly listeners to HD channels without an FM translator, that we know ofm in November 2019 compared to November 2018.

Experi’s meaningless hype of HD Radio is embarrassing. 

If the number of HD receivers has increased 5,510% since 2008, and the number of estimated listeners is at such a low level, there are major problems with HD Radio that still need to be addressed